Video Information: 11.12.2024, Vedanta: Basics to Classics, Goa
Description:
In this video, a young questioner asks Acharya Prashant about the use of animal-based products, particularly in the context of vegan athletes. Historically, human practices have often relied on ignorance and cruelty, incorporating animal products into various industries like music, sports, and sugar production. For example, leather has been used in cricket balls, and animal intestines in racket strings, largely due to tradition and habit. Despite advancements in technology that offer cruelty-free alternatives, these practices persist due to a lack of awareness and compassion.
The video delves into the idea that true change cannot arise from isolated actions, such as saving individual animals, but requires addressing the deeper issues of human ignorance and ego-driven exploitation. A shift toward a more compassionate world demands a transformation in human consciousness, ultimately reducing cruelty across all aspects of life.
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
Description:
In this video, a young questioner asks Acharya Prashant about the use of animal-based products, particularly in the context of vegan athletes. Historically, human practices have often relied on ignorance and cruelty, incorporating animal products into various industries like music, sports, and sugar production. For example, leather has been used in cricket balls, and animal intestines in racket strings, largely due to tradition and habit. Despite advancements in technology that offer cruelty-free alternatives, these practices persist due to a lack of awareness and compassion.
The video delves into the idea that true change cannot arise from isolated actions, such as saving individual animals, but requires addressing the deeper issues of human ignorance and ego-driven exploitation. A shift toward a more compassionate world demands a transformation in human consciousness, ultimately reducing cruelty across all aspects of life.
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Pranam Acharya ji. My name is Akshaya and I am 14 years old. I have been doing sessions
00:12and watching you with my mother since 2 years. And my question is that I have seen a lot
00:22of pro players, mostly tennis players, that they use tennis rackets of cow's gut strings.
00:33And they are actually vegan. And some people, a lot of people appreciate that they are vegan
00:41and they don't do any animal cruelty. So I want to ask if they are turning vegan for
00:49their own reasons because of their improvement and instructions from their coaches. Are they
00:55changing anything at all? Even those things are happening. Sports equipments are undergoing
01:04a change. Also, the guts, the cords, they were called guts specifically because they
01:11were made of animal's intestines. That's the reason you used to call them guts. But sports
01:18technology has advanced and more and more you have these strings that are no more made
01:25of animal material. I do not know of specific players who are vegan and are yet using these
01:33animal strings. But technology has provided the choice that you don't need. See you have
01:42to understand something. Human history hasn't exactly been of compassion. You look at arts,
01:57sciences, any field of human endeavour and you will find animal products are everywhere.
02:05Because that's the way we have been. When a large animal like a buffalo, a cow, a bull is
02:11slaughtered, every part of its body is used somewhere, mostly industrially. Which means
02:20that everything, almost everything that comes to you contains or is likely to contain some
02:29animal product. Even if it's not having an animal product, it's possible that something
02:39from animals has been used in its manufacturing. That is because our history has not been of
02:47compassion. You look at music for example. You look at your tabla, your dholak, these things,
02:54many of the musical instruments and you know you are using animal skin. That's animal skin.
03:03You also see that there is a lot of use of wood there. But even if you
03:08keep wood aside, the animal skin is very visible in the musical instruments.
03:15Same thing for your sports. You look at cricket and the ball. It's a leather ball. There is leather
03:22because that's the way we have been. So, that kind of ignorance and indifference and cruelty,
03:30it exposes itself, reveals itself in whatever we do.
03:35This sugar that you get, animal products are used in the processing of sugar.
03:42There is hardly any industrial product that is totally free of animal cruelty.
03:54In that context, sports too carry the imprint of animal cruelty,
04:02which is not necessary but that's how it currently is.
04:06As human consciousness awakens and that's our endeavour, you will find that the need to
04:17put an animal something somewhere, that need decreases because it's just a matter
04:25of tradition, convention, habit. It is unimaginable that
04:35creating a racket string of the right kind of polymer cannot fetch the same results
04:45as the racket string made of animal guts. So, science is obviously advanced enough
04:53to create those things. It's just that we are not feeling the need.
05:01These medicines that you take, many of them contain animal products. Most of them in fact
05:07contain animal products and the ones that do not contain animal products have been tested on animals.
05:13The cosmetic products that you use,
05:15it's winters these days, getting the right clothing for oneself is quite a task.
05:26In some way or the other, there is wool or something there.
05:32You want footwear, again you have to spend five times energy in getting a simple pair of sandals
05:40and even if you get it and even if you are told that this is a
05:51cruelty-free product, still you can never be 100% sure that it indeed is. A waist belt,
06:00you just don't know. A shirt, you don't know the entire
06:05chain of its manufacturing and also of its logistics. It is possible that there is some
06:12animal cruelty somewhere in the supply chain and all of that is coming from a single point
06:23and the point is human ignorance. If you can deal with human ignorance,
06:31only then there is the chance we will be more friendly, more compassionate towards animals.
06:39Otherwise, as I said, you have a 600 kg animal and you *** it and every bit of the 600 kilograms
06:49is put to use somewhere. The one *** it will not let go anything waste.
07:00If it can be exploited for material gain, it will be exploited
07:09and whatever waste product that remains, whatever it is that cannot be sold to anybody,
07:18that will be used to destroy the environment.
07:20That that will flow into a river or that will go into the soil and corrupt the groundwater.
07:30That's how we have been.
07:34Just not self-aware, just not knowing our relationship with the environment, with other
07:40species. Since we don't know who we are, therefore we do not know what our right relationship with
07:45everything must be. Therefore, we are cruel in as many ways as possible.
07:52This cruelty cannot be challenged in a fractured way.
07:58You cannot say, oh you know that fellow, he is *** of a fellow, I'll stop him and I have done a great job.
08:04Obviously, if I too find somebody *** of a fellow, I too will by my humanity want to stop him.
08:11But I would also know that that serves no larger purpose. The life of one *** is saved but nothing
08:16beyond that. If you really want to make a difference, then you will have to attack the problem at its center
08:26and the center is lack of self-knowledge. The center is ego.
08:34As we become more self-aware, all kinds of animal cruelty will decrease.
08:46Otherwise, a sectoral approach, a fragmented approach that will at most
08:54make you feel good about yourself. You know, I was able to rescue one goat and one dog
09:01and so I'm a good fellow. I'll feel good about myself. But in the bigger picture, it does no
09:08favor to the animals or to the environment.
09:12Thank you Acharya ji. Welcome.